WASHINGTON – The extraordinarily large number of senior military officials being relieved of duty under the Obama administration – nine generals and flag officers this year alone and close to 200 senior officers over the last five years – is part of the creation of a “compliant officer class,” according to a U.S. Army intelligence official.

According to a veteran Army intelligence official who spoke to WND on condition of anonymity, there is within the armed forces a major concern that a “compliant officer class” is being created by the Obama administration. So much so, he said, that it’s becoming harder to find “senior officers with a pair of balls in there [the military] now that would say no to anything.”

“Maybe at the rank of major or below, and possibly there are some in SOF (Special Operations Forces), but to make colonel and higher is all politics,” he said.

Underscoring the point, the official said almost no public concern was expressed by officers to the recent repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy or the decision to allow women into front-line combat.

“I didn’t read one piece of resistance to the DADT repeal, and I haven’t seen one peep about females in the infantry,” he said.

His comments echo those of retired generals who have expressed alarm over the high rate of dismissals of high-ranking officers in the Obama administration.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, a recipient of the U.S. military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, told WND that Obama’s agenda is decimating the morale of the U.S. ranks to the point that members no longer feel prepared to fight or have the desire to win.

“There is no doubt [Obama] is intent on emasculating the military and will fire anyone who disagrees with him” over such issues as “homosexuals, women in foxholes, the Obama sequester,” said Brady, former president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Not only are military service members being demoralized and the ranks’ overall readiness reduced by the Obama administration’s purge of key leaders, but colonels – who are lined up in rank to replace outgoing generals – are quietly taking their careers in other directions.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin, who was a founding member of Delta Force and later deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence under President George W. Bush, says it is worrying that four-star generals are being retired at the rate that has occurred under Obama.

“Over the past three years, it is unprecedented for the number of four-star generals to be relieved of duty, and not necessarily relieved for cause,” Boykin said.

“I believe there is a purging of the military,” he said. “The problem is worse than we have ever seen.”

Boykin said the future of the military is an increasing concern because of the departure of key leaders.

“I talk to a lot of folks who don’t support where Obama is taking the military, but in the military they can’t say anything,” Boykin said.

As a consequence, he said, the lower grades have decided to leave, having been given the signal that there is no future in the military for them.

The Army intelligence official told WND that as far as women in combat is concerned, he is “pretty sure” Army officers will “cheat to make sure one gets through basic training, as opposed to the Marine Corps which tends to be the last to lower its standards.”

As a consequence, he said, the Army is reevaluating physical fitness test standards that will “accommodate all genders, meaning lowering the standards.”

The point has been debated hotly as Obama moves women into all parts of the military. Obama supporters call for equal-effort assessments for women and men doing the same physical stress tests., while critics call for equal results, which is crucial in war.

“Without going too far down the rabbit hole,” he said, “I can tell you, having been in the infantry, that basic training isn’t a big deal. Where the females are going to get damaged is during the field training exercises and/or combat deployments.”

He also pointed out that the Army is pushing to “get rid of ‘toxic leadership.’”

“They’re even talking about a 360-degree evaluation system for officers, where the troops get a say on the officers’ performance,” he said.

That type of evaluation could prompt the departure of many more officers.

He said “toxic leadership” has been viewed as a result of the wartime environment in which people were promoted too fast or their performance wasn’t scrutinized very closely.

“I guess that’s the long way of saying probably a lot of officers need to be relieved,” he said.

The concept was outlined in a 2005 “Strategy Research Project” paper at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Pa. The paper examined the issue of “destructive leadership styles,” which apparently the Army believes continues to exist in the officer ranks and would be subject to purging.

The Army Times recently cited “toxic leadership” in reference to cases of misconduct and abuse of authority by military leaders, which have “proliferated across the services in recent years.”

In one case, which it called bizarre, a Navy commander was fired after subordinates complained that he poked them in “appallingly inappropriate places with his flashlight.”

One reader retorted: “I would never make it in this kinder, gentler Army. I wonder what happened to mission first. We won our war and a war hasn’t been won since. The only thing toxic in my day was gas.”

Boykin has told WND that the rate of dismissals has approached 200 in the past five years and that officers were dismissed on suspicion of disloyalty or suspected disagreement with the Obama administration on policy or force-structure issues.

He added that a number of officers have been relieved of duty for no given reason.

“Morale is at an unprecedented low,” Boykin said.

“Officers want to train for war but are not allowed to” because of other distractions such as allowing openly homosexual personnel in the military, the integration of women into the infantry and rules of engagement that favor “political correctness over our ability to fight to win.”

The sentiment was echoed by a Coast Guard Reserve member who told WND he will be retiring soon.

“I spend most of my ‘drills’ doing online training on things like ‘diversity’ and ‘preventing sexual harassment’ these days,” he said. “It’s becoming a joke. This country is in trouble.”

The reports include confirmation from Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, who says Obama has done “great damage” to the military by taking away resources and imposing “heavy burdens of social experimentation.”

“But most flag and general officers are following orders, keeping their heads down and, in my opinion, letting down the troops,” she said.

In the Reagan administration, Donnelly was appointed by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. In 1992, President George H. W. Bush appointed her to the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces.

West, who served on the House Armed Services Committee, said he recently had been in contact with Committee Chairman Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon. West is calling for hearings “to determine exactly why” so many officers, especially senior officers, are being given the boot.

“McKeon needs to look at this problem,” West told WND. “There needs to be transparency. It is important to get the truth.”

In a recent interview with WND, Retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, who was the deputy commanding general of the Pacific Command, similarly accused Obama’s close adviser, Valerie Jarrett, of orchestrating the imposition of “political correctness” throughout the military, affecting everyone from top generals to the ranks of the enlisted.

Valerie Jarrett

In pinning the blame on Jarrett, reportedly Obama’s most influential adviser, Vallely suggested her far-left, politically correct influence is forcing senior officers to watch everything military personnel say and do.

According to Vallely, Obama is “intentionally weakening and gutting our military, Pentagon and reducing us as a superpower, and anyone in the ranks who disagrees or speaks out is being purged.”